The Trouble With Flying
by AliasEmi
Summary: It's so cold out and Diamond is on her way back to the castle from Hogsmead, but she runs into George, her best friend and her biggest crush. Things with get fairly disastrous after she refuses to fly back to the castle with him on his broom. George/OC


Diamond Shyanne Smith

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Red/Brown Shoulder length

Interests: Reading, Singing, Drawing, Swimming, Writing Dislikes: Lying. TERRIFIED of flying

Views: Books over Quidditch

George Weasley

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Red

Interest: Quidditich, Pranks, and Sarcasm

Dislikes: Slytherins and know-it-alls

Views: Quidditch over Books (in his early years, he had brilliant grades, but cared less and less as the years progressed) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The wind was biting and cold, whipping her hair around her face as she made her way back from Hogsmead. Her ears and nose were red and raw in the blowing wind. She pulled her jumper tighter around her and forced her frozen legs to move faster. "Diamond?" someone called from above her. She looked up, forgetting about the hat she was trying so hard not to lose. The hat flew off of her head and became airborne. "Bloody Hell!" she shouted, taking off after her hat. She chased after it, but shortly after she began racing to get it, the person who had called her had caught it.

"Yours I presume?" He handed the girl her hat, chuckling.

"George!" Diamond exclaimed breathlessly, taking her hat from him. "How are you?" she asked, pulling her hat back on, grateful that the wind burn covered the deep blush that was now spread on her features. "Good. I was headed up to the castle to see Lee and I saw you. It's cold out. Do you want a ride?" He gestured to the broom in his hand.

She shook her head vigorously. There was no way in Merlin's Soggy Left **** **** that she was getting on a BROOM. "Sorry, I-I feel more like walking." she said, smiling at him nervously. "Are you sure?" he asked, scratching the back of his head and looking down the long path that she would have to take to arrive at her destination. "Yeah. Honestly." she said, knowing that he really wasn't buying it at all.

"Okay," he said dropping his hand back down to his side. "I'll walk with you then." He said, putting his broom on his shoulder.

"R-really?" she asked. Her thoughts were a whirlwind. 'Why? It's freezing and he's got a broom!' she thought.

George was looking at her. "Something wrong?" he asked when she hadn't moved.

"I… you… never mind" she said laughing a little at the track in which her thoughts had been moving, walking alongside him as they headed to the castle together. She had been thinking that maybe, just maybe, he liked her the way she had liked him for the past 6 years of her life. She swatted the thoughts away. 'That's ridiculous! He likes Katie, the amazing Chaser of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, who can play any instrument under the sun. Heck! She could fly as well as he could. They could reach the moon together if they wanted to…' she thought, her face becoming crestfallen.

"Hey." George whispered, grabbing her hand and bringing her to a stop. "Are you alright?" he asked gently, using his other hand to tilt her face up so he could see her.

Butterflies fluttered in her stomach at his touch as she looked up and met his eyes. "I'm good." she said with false cheer, a fake smile lighting up her face.

"Something's bothering you, I know by the look in your eyes." he said, his thumb caressing her cheek. "You know you can tell me. We've been friends for ages." He said, his brown eyes warming her in the chill of the snow. "Yeah, friends…" she said, looking away from him and turning her head back in the direction of the school. He tugged her hand lightly, drawing her attention to their entwined fingers. "I would do anything for you. You know that right?" he asked. She could feel him looking at her, his stare making her squirm in her shoes. She knew he meant it too.

When she looked back up at him, she saw the small smile on his face and the dance his eyes were doing. She smiled back at him. He always held this power over her. He alone had the ability to change her mood with a single look. He could single-handedly turn her day around by merely moving the muscles in his face, and he knew it. "You know, I don't think I have EVER seen you on a broom before… not even when Hooch was teaching us how to ride for the first time."

They thought back on their first year. The two of them hadn't really been friends until then.

They were learning how to ride a broom for the first time and the two of them had been standing next to each other. They received directions on calling their brooms. "Up. up. UP! Up! Up." The children in the class had called. Only Fred and George had gotten the broom to fly easily from the ground to their hands. George, seeing that she wasn't even trying, attempted to get her to give it a go, but she was stubborn. She knew what brooms were for and was not the LEAST bit interested in getting on one, let alone picking the thing up. Madam Hooch, seeing that Diamond had her arms folded behind her back had come over to see what was wrong.

"Nothing's the matter, I just don't want to have anything to do with brooms." she said to the questioning professor matter-of-factly. Hearing this, George began to make jokes about people who rode brooms so much that their bottom held the shape of the handle and Diamond began to laugh. After getting her to ease up a bit about the flying thing, he managed to convince her that she should see if the broom would listen to her if she called it. Really, all he did was challenge her that she couldn't, and being a Gryffindor, she rose to the challenge. The broom had reacted quite easily, floating off of the ground and into her hand as smoothly as it had for the twins. She smirked at him as Hooch continued on with the lesson. She didn't get on it though, and no amount of jokes or baiting could get her to sway from her decision.

"You know, you didn't even stand over the broom, let alone get on it. I think the strangest part is that the broom reacted to you wonderfully. You could have been such a brilliant flyer had you tried. Why didn't you? It looked like something was holding you down." He set his questioning gaze back on her.

She sighed and tugged on his hand, getting the two of them moving toward the castle once more. "Because something WAS holding me down." she said to him, kicking at the snow accumulating on the ground as they walked.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's just… really hard to explain.

When I was younger, my parents bought me a toy broom for Christmas one year. I was a natural according to them. They had both played on the house team and knew I would be amazing.

One day, when I was about 6, my mother had left with some of her friends to do some shopping and my father was supposed to watch me. As soon as she left, he told me to play in my room, and he had gone and gotten in the shower." she scoffed at the last sentence, shaking her head in disbelief. "I of course didn't listen and went out into the living room. I saw his broom there, out in the open, propped against the door to the hall pantry where it should have been locked away." She looked up at him and saw his wide eyes. He knew where her story was headed, but she continued. "It was the forbidden. I had been told time and time again to not lay a single finger on that broom; but here it was, and there I was. I went over and grasped the broom in my hand. It was wonderful. I felt it hum to life in my fingers." she held up the hand that wasn't currently entwined with George's and looked at it, remembering the feel of the handle in her palm. "I didn't understand that they were dangerous. I had gotten on it and it levitated off of the ground. I hadn't planned on actually moving, but I was excited. The broom began to move forward on its own, slowly. I wasn't worried. It had been hardly moving. What I failed to realize was that my mother had left the door to the back balcony open and the broom was drifting slowly out the door. I had flown outside and over the railing without noticing, and when I did notice, I panicked. There wasn't solid ground directly below me anymore, and I was worried. The ground was now an entire story below me; a good 10 feet. My palms had gotten sweaty and I was squirming around, the broom still moving just a slow. I jerked quickly, not knowing what the movement would do." She heard George gasp, the intake of breath sounding sharp, like a hiss. "I feel off of the broom and landed on the pavement leading up to our apartment, screaming the entire way down of course." There were tears in her eyes and she wouldn't look up at George.

"I woke up in St. Mungdo's three days later in a tremendous amount of pain, my father nowhere to be found and my mother resembling a stone in looks. She was disappointed in ME, a 6 year old, for doing something that was not my fault at all. I hadn't know any better, but after that, I never learned anything the hard way again. I haven't gotten on a broom since." she whispered the last sentence.

For a few moments, the walked in silence; Diamond looking at the ground with tears rolling down her cheeks slowly, and George looking straight ahead with pain in his eyes.

Suddenly, George pulled her to a stop, and she looked up at him. He placed his hand on her cheek once more, this time wiping away the tears that had formed a river down her features.

"I'm glad you were okay." he said, his voice cracking slightly at the end. "I don't think I would be the same person without you in my life." he said, a single tear leaking out of the corner of his eye. He bent down and kissed her, his hand moving to the back of her neck. Her free hand lifted to his chest, where she rested it above his heart, feeling it's beat. They stood there for a while, lips locked together, enjoying the fact that they were there and they were together. Eventually, they would continue walking to the castle, but for now, they relished being alive.


End file.
